By John Fineran
It’s time, Notre Dame. It’s time.
It’s time to honor another coach whose fingerprints are all over an athletic program.
Exhibitions aside, this weekend Jeff Jackson coaches for the 779th and 780th times behind the Notre Dame hockey bench. The opposition is a team which is very familiar to the retiring coach – Michigan State University, the school from which Jackson earned not one but two degrees as a backup goaltender in the late 1970s.
As a retirement gift, the Fighting Irish could provide a very special gift to their coach – his 600th career victory. The first 182 came at Lake Superior State where Jackson’s Lakers won two NCAA titles in 1992 and 1994 (around a runner-up finish in 1993) during his six-year run in Sault Ste. Marie.
After 417 victories in 20 seasons in South Bend, Jackson’s total is at 599 with time running out in making him the ninth collegiate coach to reach 600. He’d already be there if not for spending 10 seasons away from the college game, first as the founder and head coach of the United States National Team Development Program, as head coach of the Guelph Storm in the Ontario Hockey League and as an assistant coach for the NHL’s New York Islanders.
When Notre Dame went looking for a new head coach prior to the 2005-06 season, it couldn’t find anyone better than Jackson, who was a Notre Dame as a youngster growing up in Roseville, Mich.
“Very dear to my heart is my time at Notre Dame,” the 69-year-old Jackson said last week. “For me, it’s about the moments and it’s about people. Those are the things I will look at as my legacy.”
What has followed is the school record for hockey victories which have produced eight conference championships, 12 NCAA tournament appearances, four Frozen Fours and two NCAA runner-up finishes for the soft-spoken Jackson, who is always quick to share those accomplishments with his long-time associate head coaches Paul Pooley and Andy Slaggert and his many players who have graduated and some of whom have played professionally.
His legacy also includes the Compton Family Ice Arena. For the first six seasons, Jackson’s teams played their games in the much smaller and cramped North Dome of the Joyce Center. When athletic director Jack Swarbrick and other officials realized the hockey program’s potential under Jackson, the school built the two-rink Compton Family Ice Arena with the help of former San Jose Sharks co-owners Kevin and Gayla Compton. Beginning with the 2011-12 season, the Irish hockey team has played its games there on the Charles W. “Lefty” Smith Ice Rink, honoring Notre Dame’s first varsity coach.
“What I anticipated when I started here is what I thought Notre Dame could become in college hockey,” Jackson said. “We were there for a long period of time. We were there. For me, every moment we had – the great games in that building, the great teams we had – was magnified when we went to the Big Ten” for the 2017-18 season.
And there’s no better place to be on the Notre Dame campus during the winter months than at the Compton, according to Jackson.
“Our student section is underrated – it’s incredible,” Jackson said. “The band leads the way – (band director) Mike Merton and the band are a huge part of our program. They make a big difference every time we play. Hearing the Fight Song (the Notre Dame Victory March) gives me chills.”
Prior to last season, Jackson added a third associate head coach, former player Brock Sheahan, who was an alternate captain and defenseman on the 2007-08 team which made Notre Dame’s first Frozen Four appearance in Denver where the Irish beat Michigan 5-4 in overtime before falling to Hall of Fame coach Jerry York’s Boston College team 4-1 in the championship game. After Jackson coaches his final game this season, Sheahan becomes the new head coach.
“To watch and see the kind of man and coach Brock has become excites me about the future of this program,” Jackson said. “That’s one of the reasons why I made the decision to step down.”
Jackson realized after last season, when the Irish finished 15-19-2 overall and fifth in the Big Ten that it was time to retire, and a lot of the decision had to do with the changes that have occurred throughout college athletics since the COVID-19 pandemic – NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) money and the transfer portal.
Jackson blames himself for Notre Dame’s recent slips on ice.
“Recruiting has changed in a major way, and I didn’t keep up with the times over the last three years,” he said. “I did not go out and raise enough for NIL or try to get kids in who would cost us another $50,000 above and beyond a full scholarship. Maybe my old school ways caught up with me a little bit.”
This season has been a struggle. Going into the weekend series with the Spartans, the Irish are 10-21-1 overall and mired in the Big Ten cellar with their 4-17-1 league record. But the Irish come into this final weekend of the regular season off a 6-1 victory on the road at Wisconsin. They will be in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals away from home next weekend.
His Michigan State counterpart, Adam Nightingale, attended Jackson’s summer coaching clinics and gives him credit for some of his success.
“You go down there and try to grow,” Nightingale told Tyler Kuehl of College Hockey News. “A lot of guys are secretive about things they are trying to do, but he’s an open book and definitely helped me grow as a coach. So, the fact that he’s a Spartan, too, is pretty special. Coach Jackson (is) one of the legends of not just college hockey but all hockey.”
It’s time Jeff Jackson becomes a forever legend at Notre Dame like football’s Knute Rockne, Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine, Lou Holtz and Muffet McGraw. They all have well-deserved statues around the Notre Dame athletic complex
Jeff Jackson deserves his statue at the front of the Compton Family Ice Arena.
For all time, Notre Dame. For all time.